Lofty Thoughts on Cool

Amid this crazy, sweltering heat, let’s think nice, cool and breezy thoughts. And that necessity is the mother of invention. And that a whiter shade of pale is more than a song, it’s a new construction guideline. What do all of these things have in common (other than I should check my blood sugar levels)? Look up. Look way up … to the top of Princess Margaret Hospital.

The roof was in shambles and needed to be fixed. And it could have been done the same old way that it’s always been. Luckily the fantastic team from Infrastructure at UHN had a new idea … and I’m not just calling them fantastic because we at Energy & Environment are part of this department, but it can’t hurt. And I’m not the only one who thinks so since this super cool project is now a featured story on the UHN website. The idea in a nutshell … go white to go green for a roof that’s too cool for school.

So what is a cool roof and how does it work? Instead of the traditional dark and formal roof, this white roof reflects the suns warming rays instead of absorbing them. So the building doesn’t heat up as much and the air conditioner doesn’t have to work as hard. Less work means less energy used which means less money spent and fewer green house gases emitted. All of which makes for satisfied staff, merry management, a blissful building, and unicorns prancing on rainbows (in this case, very pale rainbows). And that’s something cool to reflect on.